(de-news.net) – Christian Dürr, the leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), used the party’s traditional Epiphany gathering in Stuttgart to argue for a clear rupture with what he characterized as prolonged political stagnation and to urge a significantly greater willingness to take risks. He presented this shift as a prerequisite for safeguarding Germany’s democratic stability and economic vitality. In this context, Dürr deliberately differentiated the FDP from the CDU/CSU, the SPD, and the Greens. He attributed the country’s extended phase of immobility to these parties and maintained that such paralysis had created fertile ground for the rise of radical political forces.
At the core of his remarks was a far-reaching proposal aimed at fundamentally streamlining Germany’s legal framework. Dürr advocated allowing all federal legislation adopted since 2000 to expire automatically at the conclusion of a future legislative period. Under this approach, a newly elected Bundestag would be granted full discretion to reinstate only those laws it considered necessary, effective, and fit for purpose. He argued that such a mechanism would directly counter what he described as a deeply entrenched “zero-risk mentality,” which, in his assessment, ultimately threatened long-term prosperity by discouraging innovation, experimentation, and structural reform.
Dürr’s call for renewal extended well beyond questions of regulation. He underscored the need for broader structural reforms and sustained investment in human capital in order to reinforce Germany’s attractiveness as a business and economic location. Central to this argument was the assertion that early access to high-quality education constituted a decisive factor in long-term competitiveness. He therefore supported a substantial increase in primary education spending to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, contending that such an expansion could be financed through a comparatively modest share of existing government special funds.
This emphasis on reform and individual initiative was echoed by party General Secretary Nicole Büttner, who sharply criticized what she described as excessive bureaucracy and regulatory overreach. In her view, these constraints limited both personal autonomy and entrepreneurial activity. She maintained that greater individual freedom and a stronger entrepreneurial ethos were indispensable not only for economic development and social mobility, but also for the preservation of core liberal values.
These programmatic appeals were delivered against the backdrop of pronounced electoral challenges for the FDP. Since failing to clear the five-percent threshold in the February 2025 federal election and consequently remaining outside the Bundestag, the party has consistently polled only three to four percent nationwide. As a result, political attention within the FDP is now concentrated on the forthcoming state elections in March in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. Rhineland-Palatinate, where the party continues to participate in the state government, and Baden-Württemberg, long regarded as the FDP’s historic stronghold, are widely seen as decisive tests of the party’s prospects for political recovery.
